“Emissions” refer to the introduction of chemicals, particulate matter, or biological materials into the atmosphere, ground, or water system that potentially can cause harm or discomfort to humans or other living organisms, or may damage the natural environment.
GHG is a collective term for gases such as carbon dioxide, methane, HFCs, SF6, and nitrous oxide that trap heat in the atmosphere and contribute to climate change. GHG accounting and reporting is the discipline of tracking GHGs produced as a result of executing business processes, including manufacturing, travel, keeping of livestock, etc.
The term “carbon dioxide equivalent” (CO2e) is the unit of measurement used to compare the relative climate impact of the different GHGs. The CO2e quantity of any GHG is the amount of carbon dioxide that would produce the equivalent global warming potential.
“Targets” are goals defined internal to an organization, such as a desired emissions goal or a desired resource consumption goal, within an established timeframe.
Legal caps (“caps”) are emission level goals defined externally by a governmental or industrial organization within an established timeframe. Typically, the caps refer to only the direct emissions of an organization.
A desired feature of a complete emissions management system is to help the organization create strategies for reducing emissions, rather than just track emissions, and to provide the ability to track the predicted and actual impact of such measures over time, so that the organization can reach their target or cap.
It is a complex task to evaluate the effects of one or more strategies to lower an organization's emissions to meet their target or cap. For example, determining each strategy's relative contribution to achieving an emissions goal over multiple accounting periods is difficult to comprehend, especially when the strategies may be implemented at different times. Decision makers in organizations need to efficiently evaluate the contributions of the various proposed strategies and their costs to determine the optimal approach to achieve an emissions goal over a span of accounting periods.
What is needed is a technique to represent past, current, and future emissions (or related environmental information) in a simple graphical manner, where the effects of proposed strategies for reducing future emissions to achieve a goal are easily understood by the decision makers.